Dawn & Al escapades to India - Days 5 & 6

We were invited to Puneet’s Mother’s House for lunch so that we could experience some real Rajasthani home cooking by Mummyji.

When we arrived Mrs Kothari had already been busy in the kitchen for a few hours and the house smelt full of the wonderful spices we love so. We were welcomed with open arms by Puneet’s parents and immediately made our way into the kitchen to see what was happening.

There was a wonderful selection of vegetarian delights simmering on the stove whilst missi rotis were being rolled out waiting to be cooked on a dry flat pan. Mrs Kothari gave us some Awala Amla to nibble on whilst she finished preparing the meal. Awala Amla is a fruit (similar to gooseberry) which has been dried with salt. The saltiness with the sourness of the fruit was the perfect way to get the appetite going.

Puneet, Mr Kothari, Dawn and I sat down for lunch and the feast began! We had so many great elements to the meal starting off with green chick pea curry and Besan curry. Both were very light and perfect to dip our missi roti in. This was followed by aubergines cooked with Mrs Kothari’s Garam Masala and Mustard oil, corn flour Dhokla, Bajara Beans & Moong Dal with mixed vegetables and plain roti. There was added heat from home made mango pickle and 8 year old lemon pickle (Mrs Kothari makes a batch of Lemon Pickle every year and nurtures it for 8 years by pickling the lemons with salt, jaggery and spices and leaving it in the sun to ferment with the occasional shake, resulting in an almost black coloured pickle with a medicinal bitter lemon flavour. This is probably an acquired taste (it is Puneet’s favourite pickle), but Dawn and I really enjoyed the flavour.

With bellies virtually full and Mrs Kothari still bringing food out we were in our element! One part of the meal that stood out was the Plain Keech which is a very traditional Rajasthani dish. This is moong dal boiled in salted water to an almost porridge consistency. Mrs Kothari went to Puneet first to dish this up, which he half heartedly said “not too much please”, whilst patting his tummy which was answered with a tut and a shake of the head in time with a large ladle of Keech being placed on his plate, Puneet’s Mother then topped this off with a table spoon of ghee and a handful of jaggery! Whilst laughing at this and at Puneets face of bemusement at his Mother’s insistence, Dawn wasn’t looking at her own plate as Mrs Kothari quietly moved round the table and filled it with Keech, Ghee and Jaggery! This was a mid meal dish and followed by more veg curry, moong dal, ladoo and Rabri.

Fit to burst whilst leaning back in our chairs Dawn and I asked Mrs Kothari to please relax and sit down to eat, expecting her to load her plate the same way she had with all of us and instead she sat down to a small salad and ladoo with a smile on her face saying she didn’t like to eat too much! If all of this hospitality wasn’t enough Dawn was then offered a bag of silver jewellery and told to pick something! We had an amazing meal with such a warm welcome (Puneets Aunt and Uncle popped by to say hi as well) this was the highlight of our time in Jaipur and we know that we will continue to stay in touch with Puneet’s parents. I have promised to send some of my pickles and chutneys to get Mummyji’s opinion.

                                          Alun, Mrs Kothari, Puneet, Mr Kothari and Dawn

One thing we were beginning to realise during our trip in India is that the more you eat the more you are hungry and by nightfall we were in search for our next meal.  We headed to a restaurant called Copper Chimney as we had been advised the local speciality, Laal Maas, was superb here and we were determined to try it out this. We were advised by the waiter that Laal Maas was very spicy which of course we didn’t mind. This was a full flavoured dish of Mutton pieces on the bone in a cracking fiery dried warm spiced gravy packed with a lot of dry red chilli and despite our chilli constitution we did feel the post chilli rush. Maybe we were being tested! We also had (which we have had as an accompaniment a few times) some hot little pickled onions which will make an appearance at The Chilli Pickle and Masala Papad which was a black pepper poppadom covered in chopped onion, tomato, coriander, green chilli, lime and chaat masala which will for sure make a tasty and popular nibble to start a meal.

Exhausted from over indulgence we admitted defeat and headed home.

We started the next day with heading to a temple to give our offering of ladoo to Ganesh, hoping it will bring us a successful start with The Chilli Pickle at myhotel. As always we were in awe and it is an amazing thing to witness such levels of devotion.

 Back to old town for last minute shopping and getting a few more samples together refuelling with regular stops for streetfood.  We were drawn in to a Pakoda dhabba which was crammed with people waving their 10ruppees to get their newspaper wrap of freshly fried pakodas cooked by the vendors in a giant korai full of smoking oil heated on a clay oven. The surrounding walls were black and there was a young boy sitting on the floor chopping vegetables to keep up with the constant demand. Once Dawn had finished taking some pictures of the vendor he handed her a freshly fried pakoda with a big toothless smile on his face, Dawn noticed it was a chilli and not the potato that was being sold and acknowledged with a nod and a bite as the seller shouted to her “don’t bite it is a chilli!!” The crowd then turned and watched as Al finished off the remaining chilli. Expecting a tearful reaction from both of us we were given a nod of approval when there was none and were handed our bag of goodies we were then back on our way shopping.

                                                         Some delicious Street food....

                                                   ...Followed by some more streetfood!

One of our other many stops was with a Chai Walla where we had some great Rajistani Chai, which is much stronger than the South Indian Chai we sell, with less cardamom, but with more black pepper and cloves in addition to the ginger and cardamom. Very nice.